Ireland registered just over 121,000 new passenger cars in 2024. That number, modest by European standards, tells a bigger story when you pull it apart by fuel type, brand, and month. The Irish car market is going through one of the most concentrated fuel transitions anywhere in Europe, and the 2024 data makes that shift impossible to ignore.
The January Rush Still Dominates
As it does every year, January accounted for a disproportionate share of annual registrations. Over 31,000 new cars hit Irish roads in the first month alone, roughly 26% of the full year total. Ireland's number plate system, where the first digits reflect the registration year, continues to drive this front-loading effect. Nobody wants a December plate on a brand new car when a fresh January plate is weeks away. The result is a single month that outsells most quarters in other European markets.
July, which was introduced as a second plate-change month in 2013, provided a secondary bump of about 25,700 units (SIMI, July 2024). The two peaks together account for close to half of all sales.
The Fuel Mix: Diesel Below 23%, EVs Above 14%
The story of 2024 is really a story about fuel. Diesel, which held 70% of the market as recently as 2016, stood at 22.80% in 2024. That is a fall of about 47 percentage points in eight years. Petrol took 30.31%, petrol-hybrid powertrains 20.92% and plug-in hybrids 10.02%, on SIMI's year-end figures.
Battery electric vehicles took 14.41% of all new registrations, down from 18.7% in 2023. In absolute terms, that is 17,459 fully electric cars, 23.6% fewer than the 22,852 registered in 2023. Tesla, Volkswagen, Kia, Hyundai and BYD were the five best-selling electric brands, and the Tesla Model 3, Volkswagen ID.4 and Tesla Model Y the three best-selling electric models.
Brand Standings: Toyota Still on Top
Toyota was once again the best-selling brand on SIMI's year-end ranking. Its hybrid lineup, particularly the RAV4 and the Yaris Cross, both among the five best-selling models of the year, suits Irish buyers who want electrification without plugging in.
Volkswagen was second and Skoda third, followed by Hyundai and Kia. The best-selling model of the year was the Hyundai Tucson, ahead of the Skoda Octavia and the Kia Sportage.
What the Numbers Mean for 2025
The direction is clear even though 2024 itself was a step back for electric cars. Ireland's move away from internal combustion is driven by government incentives, SEAI grants, and a registration tax system that heavily penalises high-CO2 vehicles. The following year bore that out: electric cars took 18.89% of 2025 registrations (SIMI, 2 January 2026).
But challenges remain. Charging infrastructure outside Dublin and Cork is thin. Second-hand EV supply is limited, which means the used car market (where most Irish buyers actually shop) is still overwhelmingly fossil-fuelled. And the January concentration effect distorts monthly EV share numbers in ways that can be misleading if you only look at one month at a time.
Explore the full 2024 Ireland data on AutoNergy, where the Overview dashboard lets you drill into monthly trends, fuel-type splits, and year-on-year comparisons.
Source: SIMI, 2 January 2025. SIMI later revised the 2024 total to 121,316.